I’m a sucker for all those cheesy and fried appetizers I’ve been seeing especially with Superbowl Sunday coming up this weekend. I wanted to share an option like these Cucumber Roll Ups that are easy to do that offers a healthy option and can also feed those who are gluten free, vegetarian, even vegan.

While I was in Santa Fe, I saw several times the options for a Southwest Squash Casserole. Instead of the usual burritos or other Mexican food with the generous ladling of red or green (or both, “Christmas style” – get it, using both red and green?) chiles, the Southwest Squash Casserole option sounded less heavy but still celebratory of the namesake southwest chiles. I didn’t have any while I was in Santa Fe, but I was inspired to make one myself.

This recipe for a Vegetarian Southwest Squash Casserole uses both red salsa and green chiles, as this was my favorite way to enjoy the chiles in Santa Fe (though they used red chiles and green chiles – I dialed down the heat by using a salsa instead). Also, maybe I could never really know which would be the best at any restaurant – the green or the red – so why decide? Why not both?

In Santa Fe sometimes the green chile came with chunks of shredded chicken in it, but if you get the ones in the can you normally see in the store it will just be the chiles – it’s up to you if you want to add in some shredded cooked chicken to this dish.

Ingredients:

8 cups of squash – I used a mix of yellow squash that I chopped into half moons (they should be at least 1/2 inch thick so they don’t get too mushy) and cubed butternut squash

2/3 cup chopped onion

1 4 ounce can of chopped green chiles

2 cups grated cheese, divided – I used a blend of cheddar and jack cheeses

1/4 cup flour

3/4 cup salsa – if it’s not spicy you may want a little more if it’s a chunky salsa you are using, if it’s spicy you might dial it back a little to not overwhelm the dish with too much heat

I had to do this in two large mixing bowls because I didn’t have a bowl large enough, but you will want to combine your 8 cups of squash, 2/3 cup chopped onion, the 4 ounces of chopped green chiles, half of your grated cheese (so just 1 cup cheese), and the 1/4 cup flour together and mix. Since I used two mixing bowls, I just put half of everything in each bowl to do the mixing – you will want to flour, onion, and green chiles and cheese to coat all your squash lightly. Then combine the mixture together into your sprayed baking dish. Cover with foil.

Bake the casserole until the squash is tender, about 30 minutes. Remove from oven and distribute your salsa over the top, as well as sprinkling over the salsa your last 1 cup of grated cheese.

Return to the oven uncovered to bake for another 15 minutes or so until the cheese is bubbling. Remove from oven and sprinkle with green onions.

Have you ever heard of a Southwest Squash casserole? Did it have this “Christmas” version of red and green chiles, or how was it?

This is my last post until after the holidays: in fact, I actually left for Japan several days before this post went up! So I wanted to take this opportunity to wish you a wonderful warm holiday until 2016, full of new memories and of course lots of deliciousness.

A incredibly delicious recipe I made for brunch one weekend was this Rosemary and Cheddar Breakfast Sausage dip.

The original inspiration that I only did minor tweaks came from the Food Should Taste Good website recipe for Brunch that users breakfast sausage, maple syrup, cheddar cheese and fresh rosemary. They got the recipe courtesy of Amanda Paa of heartbeetkitchen.com. My minor change as that I used sage breakfast sausage and removed the use of salt as I’m not a huge fan of too much salt and I also had some leftover sage that I minced and added as well to help highlight the sage in the sausage I used.

These are the Food Should Taste Good multigrain tortilla chips that are paired with this dip are gluten free, GMO free, and include healthy ingredients such as brown rice flour, flax, sunflower seeds, sesame seeds, quinoa, and stone ground corn as well as rosemary extract, which will echo the bit of rosemary in the dip.

And, it was a great way to use some of the leftover grated cheddar cheese I had grated (I grated 36 ounces of it for the cheddar fondue recipe I posted earlier on Monday!)

Ingredients:

8 ounces of breakfast sausage

1/4 cup minced onion

3 cups freshly grated cheddar cheese (9 ounces)

2 1/2 tablespoons corn starch

1 1/2 teaspoons fresh rosemary

1/2 teaspoon garlic powder

1 1/2 cups milk

1 tablespoon of maple syrup

bag of Food Should Taste Good Multigrain Chips for serving

Directions:

In a medium sized skillet over medium high heat, add the 8 ounces of breakfast sausage. Crumble it as much as you can as you add it to the plain skillet, and as you cook the sausage crumble it some more to break it up and stir.

When sausage has just a little pink remaining, add the 1/4 cup of minced onion and continue cooking, until meat is no longer pink and onions are translucent. Drain meat (separate it from the oil that emerged – I save the oil in a container to use for fried rice or something else) and set aside to cool.

In a bowl, toss together the 3 cups of freshly grated cheddar cheese, 2 1/2 tablespoons of cornstarch, 1 1/2 teaspoons of rosemary, and 1/2 teaspoon of garlic powder. If you use pre-grated packaged cheddar cheese it already has cornstarch and other preservatives in it – I recommend grating the cheese fresh!

In a medium sized saucepan, combine the 1 1/2 cups of milk and 1 tablespoon of maple syrup. Turn the heat to medium and stir constantly while it warms to steaming but not burning. Once it starts steaming, add your cheese rosemary dry mix and continue stirring as the cheese melts.

Once the cheese is melted and smooth, add the sausage and stir is to distribute the sausage evenly. Pour into a container and serve with the chips!

This dip is so good I can imagine folding a few spoonfuls into an omelette as well. This feeds 6 people and refrigerated well – I just warmed it up before serving again. I served mine in mini-ramekins with the chips. It’s great for if you have guests staying over for a little fancy extra breakfast side, or just to treat yourself on a cold morning – I justified the healthy multi grain chips as making this cheese and mat dip totally balanced.

If it looks sorta fondue-y… you’re right I thought the same thing! Obviously this isn’t vegetarian, which I wanted for my party, but for brunch for myself, sausage and bacon are fair game right?

Have you ever heard of the Simple and Crisp Fruit Crackers before? This is a great healthy alternative to crackers that also satisfy those in the party group who may be gluten-free. They are 100% fruit that are simply thinly sliced, dried, and that’s it. Simple and healthy since unlike a regular cracker vehicle they offer fiber and antioxidants, and after a month of parties it’s a welcome change from the regular cheese and crackers.
The crackers pair great with wine – whether red or white – and a variety of cheeses, here you can see I have a cream cheese and vegetable spread. Cheddars, Swiss, Brie, Blue cheeses and more work equally well. We didn’t finish all the crackers at the wine party, and I snacked on some of the leftover fruit with cheese and tea too. If I had chocolate around I might melt it and dip the fruit crackers in the chocolate too.

There are four types of fruit they offer:

Blood Orange (my favorite)

Orange (second favorite for me)

Pear

Apple

As you can see, they look fancy even though I did nothing but dump it out of the package, so perfect for the holidays. I’m not being compensated for this post – I just really like this product.

Simple and Crisp fruit crackers are a Northwest non-GMO local product created from Seattle by Jane Yuan a couple years ago. So not only are you supporting local, but also a female entrepreneur. The apples and pears are sourced from Washington and Oregon partners, and the oranges from California.

Especially during this time of years when I’m attending many get togethers, I appreciate something that looks impressive but is so stupid easy to put together, especially when I have to go straight from after work.

I get these Simple and Crisp crackers at Whole Foods, though I’ve seen them at other specialty markets too (for instance Zupan’s here, and nationally at Williams Sonoma).

Which of these fruit crisps sounds most appealing to you? What is your favorite combo to bring to a get together that is easy when you are going straight from after work?

For a get together with a neighbor to discuss some shared property plans, they provided the wine and fruit plate along with cheddar, and I pondered what to bring with my wine. I wanted something that was a snack, but was above and beyond just regular chips and dip, or throwing more sliced cheese on a platter.

A recipe that I recall several of the reps from a Food Should Taste Good event mentioned came to mind. They had raved about one of the recipes on the website, a Caramelized Shallot Jam with Goat Cheese for being super easy and tasty. I had onions instead of shallots in my pantry, but otherwise I had the ingredients on hand and decided to give a try.

The sweet potato chips were one of the discoveries I made when I attended a Food Should Taste Good promotional event a couple months back – I have always stood by the multigrain chips. That event, plus the fact that while I was in Denver, they had these sweet potato chips at Denver Airport’s beer flight event, put them onto my radar for a great chip that embodies fall without having to go to pumpkin spices and apple cinnamon donuts and ciders.

This Caramelized Onion Jam with Goat Cheese and Sweet Potato Tortilla Chips is great for a small get together for 6-10. You will want to start making the jam at least an hour ahead of time so it has time to cool off from hot to warm before you serve it. At the same time, make sure you have your goat cheese out from the fridge so it can soften and warm to room temperature to be spreadable.

1 bag of Food Should Taste Good Sweet Potato Tortilla Chips (or other chips or bread or vehicle of your choosing for the onion jam and goat cheese)

Directions:

In medium saucepan over medium-high heat, heat the oil for a few minutes. Now add the 1 cup of diced onions and saute for a minute or until the onions start turning translucent.

Add the 1/2 cup of brown sugar. Stir constantly to combine the two for the next 5 minutes or so. Turn down the heat to medium and let cook, stirring once in while, so that it all reduces into a consistency like jam.

Then carefully pour in the 1/4 cup red wine vinegar (it may steam up) and generous pinch of salt to your caramelized onion and brown sugar jam. Stir well, let reduce for another couple minutes, and then remove from heat.

Place the Caramelized Onion Jam in a small serving dish and let it cool from hot to warm. Now place it on a serving platter or alongside a small serving dish of your softened goat cheese (mash it down if it comes in a tube or other odd shape to encourage spooning and spreading it).

Serve with the Sweet Potato Tortilla Chips and it’s all fancy when you know this was all silly easy.

Even if you don’t make this recipe for Caramelized Onion Jam with Goat Cheese (I could also see the combo working in a sandwich), you should definitely check out these delicious Sweet Potato Chips!

About Pech

Pechluck's Food Adventures
Enjoying deliciousness in Portland & wherever travels may lead me.
My name is Pech, short for Pechluck. I enjoy adventures in eating - dining out and cooking and imbibing for local Portland deliciousness or wherever travels lead.

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Disclosure: There may be at times sponsored posts where the ticket to an event or meal or sample product to review was complimentary, but I will always provide my honest opinion and assessment of all products and experiences I may be given. The views and opinions expressed in this blog are entirely my own.